Google Patent Describes “Pay Per Gaze” Advertising

The other day we reported on a Google patent that through the use of Google Glass, would be able to know exactly what you’re looking at, which we’re sure can be kind of scary given the fuss that lawmakers and the public in general make over privacy these days. While we’re not sure what Google plans to do with that patent or if it will make its way into Google Glass in the future, the patent was further explored and according to new findings, it suggests that perhaps it could be used as a way for Google to get paid by advertisers.

According to the patent (via Marketing Land), it describes a system called “pay per gaze” where it tracks when a person looks at an advertisement in real life, such as a billboard sign, a flyer, an ad in the newspaper, and etc. “Pay per gaze advertising need not be limited to on-line advertisements, but rather can be extended to conventional advertisement media including billboards, magazines, newspapers, and other forms of conventional print media. Thus, the gaze tracking system described herein offers a mechanism to track and bill offline advertisements in the manner similar to popular online advertisement schemes.”

Given that Google is pretty strong when it comes to placing ads in their services, who’s to say that they’re not looking to take that expertise and apply it to real-world situations? Of course there’s no guarantee that Google will indeed make this feature part of Google Glass, but combine it with the earlier patent, it seems that there definitely is some synergy there.